Chapter 49 229 Yu Qian Defends Beijing

The 500,000 army of the Ming Dynasty collapsed in the Tumu Fortress. When the news spread to Beijing, the Empress Dowager and the Empress were so anxious that they found a large amount of gold and silver treasures, silk and satin from the inner warehouse of the palace, and secretly sent eunuchs to take the treasure to find the Oirat army. , Want to redeem Yingzong. The result, of course, is hopeless. Wounded soldiers who had escaped from the Tumubao, some with broken hands and missing legs, appeared one after another on the streets of Beijing.People in the capital were panicked, and no one knew what happened to the emperor.Besides, there are not many people left in the capital, how can the Oirat army resist when they come?

In order to calm people's hearts, the empress dowager announced that Zhu Qiyu, the king of Yi, would supervise the country (that is, act as the emperor's authority), and summoned ministers to discuss how to deal with Wala.The ministers were talking all over the place, not knowing what to do.Minister Xu Youzhen said: "Wara's troops are strong, and they can't resist them no matter what. I surveyed the celestial phenomena, and the capital will be in great trouble. It's better to flee to the south, take shelter for a while, and then make plans." Yu Qian, the Minister of the Ministry of War, said to the Empress Dowager and King Tan with a serious expression: "Anyone who advocates escape should be beheaded. The capital is the foundation of the country. If the imperial court withdraws, the situation will be over. Have you forgotten the lessons of the Southern Song Dynasty?"

Yu Qian's proposition was supported by many ministers, and the queen mother decided to call Yu Qian in charge of commanding the army and civilians to defend the city. Yu Qian was a famous national hero in the Ming Dynasty, a native of Qiantang (now Hangzhou), Zhejiang.He had great ambitions since he was a child.When he was a child, his grandfather collected a portrait of Wen Tianxiang.Yu Qian admired Wen Tianxiang very much, so he hung the portrait beside his desk and wrote an inscription, expressing that he must learn from Wen Tianxiang.When he grew up, he won the Jinshi examination and served as a local official for several times. He strictly enforced the law and was honest and honest.

When Wang Zhen was in power, corruption was rife. When local officials went to Beijing to do business, they would always bribe their superiors with silver first. Only Yu Qian never gave gifts.Someone persuaded him: "You don't want to send gold and silver treasures, can't you bring some local products?" Yu Qian flicked his two sleeves and said with a smile: "Only the breeze." He also wrote a poem to express himself attitude, the last two lines of the poem are: "Qingfeng goes with both sleeves to the sky, so that Lu Yan will not gossip." This is how the idiom "two sleeves with a breeze" comes from. ) Because Yu Qian was upright and offended Wang Zhen, Wang Zhen instigated his accomplices to falsely accuse Yu Qian, put Yu Qian in prison, and sentenced him to death.Local officials and people in Henan and Shanxi heard the news that Yu Qian had been framed, and tens of thousands of people jointly petitioned Ming Yingzong to release Yu Qian.Wang Zhen and his gang saw that the anger was hard to break, and they couldn't grasp Yu Qian's reason, so they had to release Yu Qian and resume his original post; later, they were transferred to Beijing to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of War.

This time, when the capital was facing a crisis, Yu Qian resolutely took on the important task of defending the city.On the one hand, he stepped up the deployment of troops to strengthen the defensive forces of the capital and nearby passes; on the other hand, he rectified the interior and arrested a group of spies from the Oirat army. One day, Zhu Qiyu, the king of Jianguo, came to the court, and the ministers asked to declare Wang Zhen's guilt.Zhu Qiyu didn't dare to make decisions.There was a eunuch Ma Shun, Wang Zhen's accomplice, who saw that the ministers refused to retreat, and tried to drive them away by yelling.This angered the minister.

A minister rushed up to grab Ma Shun, and the others caught up, punching and kicking Ma Shun to death. Zhu Qiyu saw the chaos in the court and wanted to hide in the inner palace. Yu Qian stopped him and said: "Wang Zhen is the chief culprit for the failure of this war. If he is not punished, the people will not be angry. As long as His Majesty announces Wang Zhen's guilt, the ministers will feel at ease." After listening to Yu Qian's words, Zhu Qiyu ordered Wang Zhen's house to be raided, and some of Wang Zhen's associates were punished, and people's hearts gradually settled down.

The leader of Wala also captured Ming Yingzong first, but did not kill him, but took Yingzong as a hostage and continued to harass the border.It seems that it is difficult to manage without an emperor in the capital.Yu Qian and other ministers asked the Queen Mother to officially announce that Zhu Qiyu would be the emperor, and the captured Ming Yingzong was renamed the Supreme Emperor.Only then did Zhu Qiyu ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, this is Ming Dynasty Zong (also known as Emperor Jing). Knowing that the Ming Dynasty was determined to resist Wala, he used the excuse of sending Ming Yingzong back to the dynasty to invade Beijing on a large scale.

In October of this year, the Oirat army quickly reached the city of Beijing and set up camp outside Xizhimen.Yu Qian immediately called the generals to discuss countermeasures.General Shi Heng believed that the Ming army was weak, and advocated withdrawing the army into the city, and then closing all the city gates for defense. After a long time, perhaps Wala would retreat automatically. Yu Qian said: "The enemy is so arrogant. If we show weakness to them, it will only fuel their arrogance. We must take the initiative to send troops and give them a head-on blow." Then, he assigned generals to lead the troops out of the city and set up a formation outside the nine gates of the capital.

After Yu Qian arranged the troops from all walks of life outside the city, he personally led a team to garrison outside the Desheng Gate, and asked the guards in the city to close all the gates, expressing his determination to advance and never retreat.And a military order was issued: when a general goes into battle and loses his team and takes the lead to retreat, the general will be beheaded; if the soldiers do not obey the general's command and run away before the battle, the generals of the rear team will be supervised and beheaded. The soldiers were moved by Yu Qian's brave and firm spirit, their morale was uplifted, their fighting spirit was high, and they were determined to fight to the death with the Oirat army and defend Beijing.

At this time, the Ming army from all over the country received orders from the imperial court and also marched to Beijing to support them.The Ming army outside the city increased to 220,000. The Ming army was powerful and heavily guarded. They also launched several attacks first, but they were all bravely blocked by the Ming army.The people outside the city also cooperated with the Ming army, jumped on the roof and walls, and threw bricks and tiles at the enemy.After five days of fierce fighting, the Oirat army suffered heavy casualties. He also suffered heavy losses first, and was afraid that the retreat would be cut off by the Ming army, so he did not dare to fight again, so he retreated with Ming Yingzong and the defeated generals.

Yu Qian waited for Ming Yingzong to go far away, and bombarded with artillery, killing and wounding a group of Oirat soldiers.The battle to defend Beijing City was a brilliant victory. Yu Qian made great contributions and was loved by the soldiers and civilians in Beijing.Emperor Ming Dynasty respected him very much.The house of Yu Qian's family is simple and can only provide shelter from the wind and rain. Emperor Ming Dynasty built him a mansion, but Yu Qian declined.He said: "Now is the time when the country is facing a crisis, how can you covet enjoyment?" After failing first, he knew that it was useless to detain Ming Yingzong.Put Ming Yingzong back to Beijing. Yu Qian devoted himself to defending the country, but Xu Youzhen, who advocated escaping during the critical days in Beijing, and the general Shi Heng, who was reprimanded by Yu Qian, all held grudges against him and secretly tried to take revenge. Seven years after Yingzong returned to Beijing, that is, in 1457 A.D., Ming Dynasty Zong fell seriously ill. Xu Youzhen and Shi Heng colluded with eunuchs and led troops into the palace to welcome Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen back.In history, this incident was called "the change of seizing the door".Not long after, Ming Dynasty Zong died. After the restoration of Ming Yingzong, he was angry with Qian for helping his younger brother to proclaim himself emperor when he was captured and exiled, and Xu Youzhen and Shi Heng said a lot of framed words in front of him, so he became cruel , Added a charge of "rebellion" to Yu Qian, and killed Yu Qian. When the people in Beijing heard that Yu Qian was wronged and killed, no matter men, women or children, they all cried bitterly.People recite a poem "Ode to Lime" written by Yu Qian when he was young: "Thousands of hammers and thousands of hammers gouged out the deep mountains, and the fire burned like nothing. I am not afraid of being smashed to pieces, I want to stay innocent in the world! " People believe that this is the portrayal of Yu Qian's life.